Software defined transponder architecture

Software defined radio has powerful possibilities of communication. It enables modulation and frequency independent signal transfer with a same hardware. Software defined transponder extends standard transponders by this thought. Received signal from a user is brought to the baseband, or even decoded and subsequently retranslated with a new code and modulation to other users. This method has a positive influence on the power budget. We obtain full variability of routing capabilities between the different users inside the transponder what saves the channel capacity. The proposed architecture has an additional degree of freedom, by using cross antennas. Hence, we can realize a polarization independent transceiver. The transponder architecture has a modular structure. It allows simple adaptation of the transponder to individual system requirements.